This invention relates to the field of communication systems and computer telephony. In particular, this invention is drawn to methods and apparatus for servicing queued requests.
Call centers enable queuing of customer calls for subsequent connection to agents for handling the customer""s requests. Customer calls are queued until an agent is available to handle the telephone call. An automatic call distributor (ACD) is typically used to queue the calls and subsequently route them to agents subject to implementation specific rules when availability permits.
Typical ACD routing rules emphasize distributing incoming calls among agents in a manner that 1) reduces the initial response time before the call is answered and 2) balances the call load among the agents. This often results in assigning the calling customer to the first available agent with a first-in-first-out queue discipline.
One disadvantage of this approach is that the first available agent may not be the agent best suited for handling the customer. Moreover, if that first available agent has skills particularly needed to handle a subsequent customer in the queue, the subsequently queued customer may experience undesirable extended wait periods while the first caller is being serviced. Alternatively, assigning a customer the first available agent may undesirably increase that customer""s total service time if the customer has to be subsequently forwarded to another agent for handling.
In view of limitations of known systems and methods, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide methods and apparatus to enable improved matching between requests for service and the agents servicing the requests.
Methods for servicing queued requests include the step of queueing at least one request for an initial wait time until at least one agent is available for accepting the queued request. A delay element is provided so that assignment of the queued request is delayed for a delay time. The queued request is then assigned to an available agent.
In one embodiment, the delay time is a pre-determined availability pendency time independent of the initial wait time. In another embodiment the request is delayed until a pre-determined queue time has elapsed. In another embodiment, the request may be delayed up to a pre-determined availability pendency time as long as a pre-determined queue time is not exceeded.
The delay element need not change the queue discipline. Various queue disciplines including first-in-first-out (FIFO), group FIFO, and modified group FIFO are described for a queueing mechanism incorporating a delay element.
The queued requests may represent requests for service to respond to any of a variety of sources including electronic mail communications, facsimile communications, internet communications, telephone communications, etc. In one embodiment, the methods are implemented by an automated call distributor.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows below.